


Got me losin' all my cool

by sweetlikehoney (Nina_Carter)



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, concrit welcome and encouraged, crystal's going Thru It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:53:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26328946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nina_Carter/pseuds/sweetlikehoney
Summary: Crystal gets paired for an essay with Gigi Goode, the girl she's been crushing on from afar, and tries not to make a fool of herself.
Relationships: Gigi Goode/Crystal Methyd
Comments: 19
Kudos: 75





	Got me losin' all my cool

**Author's Note:**

> Submitted for the Back to School Challenge by writethehousedown.  
> Day 1: Notebook  
> You can also read it here: writethehousedown.tumblr.com/post/628546522977533952

The sun shone brightly through the window, directly into Crystal’s eyes. It fed the headache she could feel growing with every squeak of chalk on the blackboard, every droning word that left her teacher’s mouth. Ten a.m. and she was already done with school.

Crystal was holding a pen, but every time she thought she understood the lesson enough to reflect it on paper, the teacher moved on to a new concept and Crystal’s fragile understanding crumbled down. Three attempts later, Crystal gave up on the entire lesson and resigned herself to relying on someone else’s notes. She studied her classmates, trying to figure out who would be willing to help her out. She didn’t really have friends in the class, but maybe…

Crystal looked a few desks over to the girl sitting at the front of the class, hair gathered up neatly in a ponytail, face propped on her left fist. Her pen hadn’t stopped moving since class started.

Gigi Goode was not her friend. Up until the previous week, their relationship was limited to the moments when Crystal would feel brave enough to wave at her and Gigi would wave back, giving her a half-smile so pretty that Crystal had to look away every time. That was it. Crystal was pretty sure the girl didn’t even know her name.

But then.

Then, the class had got paired up for an essay, and God had decided to be funny.

* * *

“You’ll need to write fifteen hundred words, more or less, including the conclusion,” said the teacher. “Now, for the teams, uhh… left side of the class, write your names in pieces of paper, then put them in this jar, c’mon.” At that, he grabbed the chalk jar off his desk and emptied it, then handed it to the nearest student to pass around.

Crystal tried to be discreet, but she couldn’t stop sneaking glances at the front of the class, where Gigi Goode was ripping off a bit of paper from her notebook. Crystal knew better than to hope. There were twenty three people in her class, and she had twelve potential partners, which meant… eight percent? She had an eight-ish percent chance of getting paired with the girl she couldn’t stop looking at. It was a very low number.

 _Do I even want her as my partner?_ , she thought. At the time, Gigi was a nice distraction during a boring class, something to look forward to on Wednesday mornings. By spending time with her, by having their first real conversation, really, Crystal risked ruining a perfectly nice crush. What if Gigi was secretly mean? Although she didn’t seem like the type. Crystal had seen her happily chatting with Jan Mantione many times. Jan was too kind to befriend a mean girl.

God, what if she was boring? That would be depressing. If Gigi was the type to call everything a “meme”, or if she tried to show her a joke she found on Instagram that Crystal had seen on Twitter six months ago… Maybe they wouldn’t have anything to talk about, maybe Crystal would forget everything she knew about the subject and look stupid, maybe-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the kid behind her tapping her gently on the shoulder with the name jar. Crystal smiled her thanks and took the jar, and a folded strip of paper from it. _It’s no big deal. It’s no big deal._ She unfolded the name, and… _oh_.

Gigi had really pretty handwriting.

Crystal noticed that her classmates were moving around and finding their partners, so she stood up and walked to the front of the class, where Gigi was looking around, waiting to be approached.

“Umm, Gigi?”

“Crystal, hey!” said Gigi. Okay, so she did know her name.

“I got you. Your name, I mean.” _Smooth_.

“Oh, good! I was hoping I’d get you.”

“Really?” asked Crystal, a little shocked.

“Really. You seem cool, and I know you have a high grade in this class. You’re my perfect partner,” she explained, again flashing her million watt smile.

_What the fuck… what the fuck…_

“Oh, uh, great, then! Great…” Crystal trailed off, but she thought she deserved a medal for even replying, at all. She looked at Gigi and noticed the girl was staring at her, expectantly.

“What?” she asked, dumbly.

Gigi smiled and leaned in.

“The essay?”

“Oh my God, right. So, how do you wanna tackle this? Library after school?”

“Let’s go to my place, instead. My mom can pick us up and you can stay for dinner, if we need more time.”

Gigi didn’t ask questions, she just laid out plans and expected the masses to follow. And they did.

“Oh, sure, that sounds good. I, um, should I give you my number?” _Nice, Crystal_.

“Yes! Here,” said Gigi, handing over her phone.

Crystal typed her number under the name “Crystal” and saved the contact. Then, she went back and added “(from school)”.

The bell rang and Gigi started gathering her things. “Meet me in the parking lot at the end of the day, okay?”

“See you then,” said Crystal. There was really no denying Gigi’s smile and directness, her unwavering confidence.

In her defence, the plan worked. Gigi’s mom was funny and loud, throwing quips back and forth with her daughter and making Crystal feel at ease the moment she got in the car. The Goode house was big enough that the girls could discuss their ideas loudly when they got excited (which happened often), and play music at top volume (Gigi had an _actual_ CD player, and The Cranberries’ entire discography, to Crystal’s delight.)

They ended up working together for five hours, which gave Crystal plenty of opportunity to make a fool of herself, and she more than delivered. But Gigi just kept laughing at everything that came out of her mouth, and after a while, Crystal understood that she was being laughed _with_ , not _at_. Gigi genuinely found her funny.

Crystal did end up staying for dinner, even though their work was finished. Crystal and Gigi set the table in perfect coordination, as if they did it every day, and Crystal felt warm at the notion and dumb at the feeling.

_You talked today for the first time. Calm down, lesbian._

But the Goode family didn’t make it easy either, with their welcoming attitude and the way they teased Crystal like they’d known her forever. She felt comfortable there, and once her dad picked her up, all she could think about was that she wished the essay had taken longer.

* * *

A week later, they were back at square one, like nothing had happened. Gigi still waved in the hallways and Crystal maybe held eye contact for longer but that was just scratching the surface of what Crystal wanted. Namely, to be asked out. But she’d fucked up monumentally by not getting Gigi’s number when she had the chance, and Crystal’s suave move of putting her contact in Gigi’s phone had gone to waste, because Gigi had not texted her. Crystal was not about to _talk_ to her in _person_ about the _weather_ or whatever people talked to their crushes about. High school sports. Locker decoration or something.

Asking for notes, however, was a logical and not at all suspicious reason to approach someone. The bell rang, people started leaving. This mission had a ticking clock. She could do it, she could talk to Gigi as long as she had a goal and an opening line thought out. She was doing this, she was getting out of her chair, she was walking to the front of the class and it was a bad idea Crystal turn back turn back turn-

And she was at Gigi’s desk.

Gigi noticed her and slammed her notebook shut with a pencil still inside.

“Hi, Crys!”

Any weirdness Crystal may have noticed on the girl was completely swept from Crystal’s mind by that nickname.

“Hey, Geeg.” _That’s good, that’s casual_. Crystal leaned against the empty desk next to Gigi’s. “So, I completely blanked the entire class. I wanted to ask if you’d lend me your notes?”

Gigi’s face fell a little. “Oh.”

“Only if you want, of course!” Crystal was quick to add, “You totally don’t have to, you probably need your notebook, and- forget I asked.”

“No, no, Crystal, it’s not that. It’s just, I- I also didn’t take any notes, so. Seems we’re on the same boat, ha ha.”

“Oh, sorry!” _Hold on_. “I saw you writing a lot, were you just fooling Mister Crawley?”

Gigi looked down to her pencils and whispered, “No, I was, uh, drawing.”

“You draw?” Crystal asked, suddenly excited. “I love drawing, I draw all the time!”

“I know that,” whispered Gigi.

“What?”

“I said, _I don’t like_ this drawing, really, so I don’t wanna show it.”

“I feel like that all the time about my drawings. I like to think it’s because I’m improving, but who knows!”

“You get it,” said Gigi.

“Well, do you wanna go get someone else’s notes? Since we both missed the class.”

Gigi visibly perked up. “Sure! Let’s go.”

When Crystal turned to go get her things, she kicked Gigi’s desk and her pencils and notebook fell to the ground, open at the page where Gigi had left a pencil. The pencil rolled under the teacher’s desk, but Crystal didn’t notice because her eyes were fixed on the drawings on the page.

She recognized those lips. She recognized that nose, she recognized that hair.

She recognized herself.

Gigi dropped to the floor and scurried to close the notebook.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, clutching her notebook to her chest and not looking up.

Crystal lowered herself to the floor and laid her hand in between their bodies.

“Can I see?”

Gigi’s head shot up and she stared at Crystal in shock.

“You weren’t meant to see that.”

“I mean, you don’t have to show me, but from what I could see, you made me really cute,” said Crystal, smiling wide.

Gigi seemed to pick up on Crystal’s good intentions and smiled back. “I just draw what I see,” she said, handing Crystal the open notebook.

“Cheeky.”

Crystal studied the drawing, running her finger through the lines. It really was good.

“You got my hair exactly right. Even the color.”

“You’re being weirdly chill about this. Most people would freak out, I assume.”

Crystal shrugged. “No need to freak out over this. I’m honestly flattered, I didn’t realize you spend so much time looking at me,” she teased.

Gigi laughed and took her notebook back. “Shut up! I don’t, you just have a memorable face.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment!”

“It is.”

The girls stared at each other for a moment, until Crystal broke the silence.

“Although, you missed my freckles, and the eyes are too big. You should look at me some more, maybe after school at the milkshake place down the block?”

Gigi blinked a few times.

“That was smooth as fuck. I was hoping you’d have the gall to ask me out sometime this year,” she teased.

“You know, I _was_ nervous to do it before, but you really showed your hand today, so I figured it’s my turn to embarrass myself.”

“Fuck you,” said Gigi, with the biggest smile.

“Sure. Not in school, though. We’ll see how this date goes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Any feedback and constructive criticism is more than welcome.


End file.
